AUGUST 26 2020
Kayla Osborne
Underage teens who are caught attempting to buy an alcoholic drink at Camden’s pubs and clubs will be barred from more than 80 venues until their 21st birthday.
This is just one of the new rules the Camden Liquor Accord has ratified in an attempt to stop anti-social behaviour at local licensed venues.
Liquor accord president Steve Wisbey said underage drinkers had become more prevalent in the area over recent years.
“With the way technology has developed these kids are getting their hands on or making more realistic fake ID’s,” he said.
“The reality is that there isn’t much of a penalty if underage drinkers are caught out by the police, but us licencees face losing our liquor licence and our whole livelihood.
“People have complained that the legal drinking age is 18 so we should only be barring them until they are 18 – but if they are already 17 it isn’t much of a penalty.
“We wanted this to be an actual penalty to try and stop it from happening altogether.”
If someone is banned from one venue, they will then be banned from the more than 80 local licensed venues that are a part of the Camden Liquor Accord.
The accord also ratified new rules which will allow venues to ban people who cause fights or act inappropriately.
“We will have a barring committee that will review each incident and then the NSW Police will issue bans that will be in place for two to five years,” Mr Wisbey said.
“Anti-social behaviour can really affect us as business owners and the responsibility is put back onto us when people should be held accountable for their own actions as well.
“The penalties are not severe enough and we need to protect our employees, our family business and, of course, our customers from this kind of behaviour.”
Mr Wisbey said the NSW Police Force was supportive of the accord’s new rules.
He said banned patrons caught trying to get into or at local venues would be arrested.
“This will be run in conjunction with the police,” he said.
“The first round of barrings will be discussed soon.
“There are venues who have none and there are venues who have six to 12 people they want banned but it’s just taken a while to get this all sorted.
“Police will soon be knocking on doors to issue ban notices.”